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Southwest Airlines, which last hired flight attendants from outside the company in 2011,
recently received applications at a rate of 80 a minute, amassing 10,000 resumes for 750
openings.

“It was the first time we did that in a while, and of course anytime we do it, it’s like opening
up the floodgates,” Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly told employees in a weekly recorded message.
“We knew it would be the same this time.”

Employment at U.S. passenger airlines is showing signs of stabilizing, according to the
Transportation Department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The industry’s workforce shrank by
0.8 percent to 381,178 in October, the last month for which data were available. That’s the
smallest decline in 13 months.

The deluge of applications in two hours and five minutes at Dallas-based Southwest also
underscores the demand for work even as U.S. economic growth gathers pace. The U.S. jobless rate
fell to a five-year low of 7 percent in November, while the economy expanded at a 4.1 percent pace
in the third quarter, government data show.

In recent years, other airlines have also seen interest in flight-attendant positions. Delta Air
Lines got 22,000 resumes for 300 jobs in December 2012, and US Airways Group Inc., now a part of
American Airlines Group Inc., attracted 14,000 applicants when it hired 420 attendants in 2010.

New hires at Southwest will earn about $24.39 an hour and work a minimum of 66 hours a month,
Dan Landson, a spokesman for the Dallas-based company, said.

Southwest needs to augment its staff after ordering bigger planes and expanding international
routes, Landson said.

Southwest is awaiting delivery of 55 Boeing Co. 737-800s and already flies 44 of the jets. They
are the largest aircraft in the carrier’s fleet, capable of seating as many as 175 passengers and
requiring four flight attendants.